ORLANDO, Fla. — Credit unions and CUSOs face a pivotal moment as large financial institutions pour billions into innovation, CUs have a competitive advantage if they are able to make up in collaboration what they lack scale, the new head of the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations (NACUSO) said.
Speaking at the NACUSO Reimagine 2026 conference, CEO Randy Salser said the industry is at “an inflection point” between working cooperatively and competing against some of the largest players in financial services.
Salser pointed to significant investments by major banks, noting that JPMorgan Chase invested $3 billion in fintech in 2025.
“They are not trying to out-cooperative us. They are trying to out-innovate us,” Salser said. “We can’t and shouldn’t try to outspend them. That’s not our model. We do have something more powerful. We have each other.”
Salser emphasized that the credit union system was built on collaboration, with credit union service organizations (CUSOs) serving as a key mechanism for shared innovation and growth.
“The CU system was never designed to operate alone. We were designed to work together, and CUSOs are the embodiment of that,” he said.
Three Strategic Priorities
Salser said NACUSO will focus on three strategic priorities: advocacy, collaboration and education.
He said education efforts will be driven through NACUSO’s digital platforms, with a focus on making it easier to build and scale CUSOs across the industry. At the same time, he warned that fragmentation within the system could hinder progress.
“Sometimes we operate too separately and in silos. That must change,” Salser said. “The next decade will not reward hesitation. It will reward collaboration at scale.”
Salser called for deeper partnerships among credit unions, CUSOs and mission-aligned fintech firms, arguing that stronger alignment is critical to future success.
What Will Decide the Future
“The future of this system will not be decided by who has the biggest balance sheet,” he said. “It will be decided by those who can move together the fastest—those who can align, partner and build.”
While large banks have scale, Salser said, they cannot replicate the cooperative model that defines credit unions.
“They can invest billions, but they cannot recreate a system built on trust, shared ownership and collaboration,” he said. “That’s ours.”
Salser added that fully leveraging that model will determine whether credit unions can lead rather than follow in an increasingly competitive financial services landscape.
“If we lean into collaboration, if we invest in each other, if we build together instead of apart, we don’t just keep up—we lead,” he said.
Salser also shared this update on the CUSO numbers, below.
